V1Rocket Beta2 Release


(FireFly) #1

Well, After a few weeks of testing and tweaking the private beta1 version: Here’s the first public Beta release of V1Rocket.

Some screenshots are located here:

You can download the map (11MB) at: http://www.pcgamemods.com/5381/

Any suggestions / comments or bug-reports that will help me improve this map will be more than welcome.

Thanks,

FireFly


(S. Monkey) #2

Just done a quick run through. Very nice :slight_smile:

I did spot something strange though. When the V1 is going along the track (after being taken off the lorraine) it turned black for a moment just before it entered the tunnel. Not sure if its just my computer or a bug in the map.

It looks good, but I can’t comment on the game play from a solo run through. Do you have it running on any servers?


(Java.Lang) #3

These tunnels look sick man, nicely done.


(seven_dc) #4

Whooah!

That map is a one piece of an art! The quality of brushwork is near the SD and the custom models are very good.

Little notices though.

  • Where is the sky… well with that kind of fog it is understandable.
  • Little empty rooms… specially after the bridge.
  • Map is huge. This is good for public play, but how does it work with clan play?
  • The file size is quite large… I am again suggesting to convert your command map to jpg. that will save you a meg.
  • Your terrain allows players to get places I think they shouldn’t. I am no trickjumper and still managed to get top of the building where is the dyna door near the bridge as allies.

Uggs


(Mean Mr. Mustard) #5

Very sweet!! And the models are awesome!

I did notice one thing. As the v1 is being trasported to the launch rail, the wheels on the overturned cart in the tunnel are spinning also :wink:
Great job all around!


(FireFly) #6

First, thanks for all feedback… It’s something I really need if I want to improve the map…

I did spot something strange though. When the V1 is going along the track (after being taken off the lorraine) it turned black for a moment just before it entered the tunnel. Not sure if its just my computer or a bug in the map.

Just checked it and you’re right. The rocket turns black for about a second or two.

However I found a similar topic here: http://www.splashdamage.com/index.php?name=pnPHPbb2&file=viewtopic&t=5847&highlight=black+model

After reading it I think I ‘d better decrease my gridsize value like sock is suggesting.I’'ll try that tomorrow when I have more time

Do you have it running on any servers?

I haven’t seen it yet on any server, but it’s still very early, I released the map just a couple of hours ago.I for one am very curious about the game play.

These tunnels look sick man, nicely done.

Well, not only do they look sick, They also made me feel pretty sick, giving me a huge headache.

The caves were done by dragging the vertexes inside the brushes. Which, I later found out, is a really bad way of making caves. The result was disappearing brushes after saving and reopening the map and ( the biggest problem) seams. When I had fixed a particular part of the cave and compiled the map, another seam would pop up. I got rid of most of them now, but had to rebuilt large sections of the cave. That part of the map (the caves) is a complete mess. I believe right now there are only on or two seams left in the cave-system.

There are 3 separate cave-systems in my map 1: The one from the screenshot that leads you toward the objective 2: The one that leads to one of Axis’ spawnpoints and 3: the small one the lorraine travels through. That last one was done after reading sock’s tutorial about creating caves. oh yeah, and that’s the only one that didn’t cause any problems like seams etc… :smiley:

The quality of brushwork is near the SD and the custom models are very good.

Thanks, That was my ‘main goal’ when I started this map. To create a map that would look and feel like one of the official ET maps.

About the models, I’m a little afraid that they might cause some problems on servers. I believe the lorraine model with the rocket on top of it has something like over 5000 verts, which is way too much.

Where is the sky… well with that kind of fog it is understandable.

yep, there is no sky, at least not a visible one. I used the same sky as in railgun (abit modified though).

Little empty rooms… specially after the bridge.

I agree, Some rooms could use some furniture or crates.

Map is huge. This is good for public play, but how does it work with clan play?

The map was designed for public play and should handle 32-64 players ( it will be laggy as hell with 64 players, but each spawnpoint can hold 33 players). Creating such a big map was fun to do, but I can assure you, that it will be my first and last huge map. It just takes too much time. Worked on this map for almost 9 months.

About clan play, I really can’t tell.But I agree that v1rocket isn’t going to be a ‘standard’ clan map, It’s just way too big…

The file size is quite large… I am again suggesting to convert your command map to jpg. that will save you a meg.

I will do that, I already converted most textures to jpg to save space.

Your terrain allows players to get places I think they shouldn’t. I am no trickjumper and still managed to get top of the building where is the dyna door near the bridge as allies.

Schaffer, who took part in the private beta1 testing (and did a great job), said exactly the same thing. So I re-clipped everything, but must have missed this spot. A very important spot too, I might add. An allied player isn’t supposed to reach the axis spawnpoint that way to prevent spawn-killing.

I did notice one thing. As the v1 is being trasported to the launch rail, the wheels on the overturned cart in the tunnel are spinning also

Damn! That’s a stupid mistake from my part. Both carts are using the same shaders for the wheels. There is also a third cart ( below the second axis spawn) that probably has the same thing going.

Thanks everyone for the input and please keep those suggestions/ bugreports going…


(deej) #7

I loaded it onto our Custom Map Server (fragland.org:27778). I made it the starting map of the Beta Campaign for easy loading and it also has its own campaign (V1 Rocket) so you don’t need to go into to stopwatch mode to get there (of course you can :-)).

We have http downloads turned on but can we ask getting it from pcgamemods first so not to overshoot our bandwidth? Thanks!

Haven’t played it yet since I’m at work right now (all hail to PuTTY! ;-)) but it certainly looks great. Can’t wait to go home.


(pgh) #8

http://www.swertcw.com/default.php?c=news&p=comments&id=3133

Info posted for ya m8. Maps looking sweet btw… any feedback I could have gave you has already been stated above. Nice work.


(Schaffer) #9

Sorry for missing a bad spot FireFly :(. I’ll try harder next time :slight_smile:


(Fenris) #10

Just a little comment, I do like the new vehicle design but the map layout to me at first seems quite like fueldump with the tank, the bridge to build, the door to blow up and the tunnels, then it suddenly looks a little bit like railgun with the transferring of the V1. But once the V1 is on the little boggy there’s no stopping it from what it looked like to me ? Don’t you think that would make the map a littel bit too easy for allies ? Or possibly that axis would just camp out the fuel since that will be the only thing they can do at that time.

I’m not critizing, I’m rather just asking as the map size is quite large and would possibly discourage downloads, especially if the map “feels” rather like other maps.


(FireFly) #11

Sorry for missing a bad spot FireFly…

No problem schaffer. I was responsible for creating the map so I shouldn’t have missed this spot in the first place :smiley:

I must repeat that Schaffer did a really excellent job testing the previous beta. He sent me a very detailed ‘bug report’ and made some useful suggestions on how to improve my map.

…I’ll try harder next time

lol, I’m already making some sketches and done some work in 3dmax for my next map. You’re the first one I’ll sent the Alpha version to.

Info posted for ya m8. Maps looking sweet btw… any feedback I could have gave you has already been stated above. Nice work.

Thanks pgh for posting this on swertcw! more publicity means more feedback, thanks…

I just got home from work and saw that Planet wolfenstein also have posted some news about the map.

I loaded it onto our Custom Map Server

thanks deej for hosting the map. Would you mind posting some feedback Because I’m very curious what people on the server think of the map. Does the map has any game play issues: For example Do the allies have a hard time blowing the main door, are there any ‘choke points’ like the end of a cave that is causing problems, Are there any spots with high r_speeds, causing lag…

Btw Here are some servers that i’m aware of having the map in rotation:

  • <R0F> / fragLAND Custom MaP ip: 81.169.172.168:27778

  • [AE] American Elite Clan ip: 66.98.158.11:27964

  • SouthBunker (XP Save) ip: 69.31.6.24:27960

  • =Shit Storm=AbySS ip: 67.15.20.189:27960


(pgh) #12

Yep, nps m8…

Need any other testers gimme a shout…


(neotic) #13

map plays very well


(FireFly) #14

Just a little comment, I do like the new vehicle design but the map layout to me at first seems quite like fueldump with the tank, the bridge to build, the door to blow up and the tunnels, then it suddenly looks a little bit like railgun with the transferring of the V1.

Well, For someone playing the map for the first time it might look similar to fueldump / railgun ( same objectives, same snowy atmosphere, the crane). But than again, other customs maps that have an escortable vehicle also tend to have the same objectives as the official maps.

I think the best example would be the custom map “Temple” created by Marko. If you’d compare temple with v1rocket you will notice that both have a tank that has to cross a constructible bridge, Both have tankbarriers that allies have to destroy (in v1rocket that would be the maindoor) and both have an objective that has to be stolen. Only difference would be that temple is a ‘desert’ map , while v1rocket is a ‘snow’ map…

You also have to know that I started mapping on this project right after SD released the Enemy Territory Test version, which only contained fueldump. So most objectives, the atmosphere and the layout was inspired by the fueldump-map. Later on I got my inspiration from other maps (like railgun, oasis) but also some ‘old’ RTCW maps like TramSiege, mp_Keep, mp_assault and mp_base. I’ll post some screens later on to show you the comparison…

Btw, Like I said in one of the previous replies I posted: I wanted this map to look and feel like an official ET map. To do that it’s almost impossible to avoid any similarities with the official maps.

But once the V1 is on the little boggy there’s no stopping it from what it looked like to me ? Don’t you think that would make the map a littel bit too easy for allies ? Or possibly that axis would just camp out the fuel since that will be the only thing they can do at that time.

In an Earlier version of my map the allies also had to escort the cart with the rocket towards the launch site, the cart could be damaged and repaired just like the lorraine: I skipped this because I thought It would be a bit too much for the allies. (Escort the lorraine,escort the cart, steal the obj,secure the obj). However I still have to agree with you that after the allies manage to get the lorraine to the depotyard ,the allies will not have a hard time reaching the objective…(Both Schaffer as Erwin brought that to my attention during the private Beta1 testing)

A possible solution would be to have a constructible barrier for axis to built between the depotyard and the launch site, stopping the cart. I also thought about having a constructible barrier in the caves that leads to the objective (the fuelcan model). Something like an iron or wooden gate, or perhaps some big rocks that blocks the allied players. I believe (But i’m not 100% sure) that hummer did something similair in his raiders-map…
I’m not really worried about axis camping at the objective (the fuelcan). In every game you will have players that go on defense, by defending the objective, and players that go on offence by attacking/hunting down the allies. I also made sure that there were enough alternative routes for the allies to get the objective: Currently there are 3 routes leading to the obj, while for example the ‘goldrush’ map only has one…

I’m not critizing, I’m rather just asking as the map size is quite large and would possibly discourage downloads, especially if the map “feels” rather like other maps.

You’re not critizing, you are helping me improving my map by pointing out possible flaws in my mapdesign.Wether I agree/disagree with your comments is not the issue. Trust me, you’re comments are only helping me…

.


(neotic) #15

I downlaoded it via Shit-Storm’s server… like I said it played great. There was this one train tunnel that was about 128 units wide that was a great bottleneck… had 3 or 4 of us axis tryn to hold off 8 allies. was really fun. as long as axis can limit how many people get in to the general area ANd defend the fuel they are fine… so I dont think being able to disable the rocket’s taxi is a big deal.


(FireFly) #16

@neotic: I haven’t had a change playing it but I will try it tonight at one of the servers.
I’m having trouble figuring out which tunnel you are referring to:

(sorry for the bad screenshot, it’s taken from within radiant instead of ingame)
Do you mean the first or second tunnel that has a bottleneck / choke point ?

EDIT: Forgot to ask, but did the allies have a hard time getting the tank over the bridge and destroying the maindoors?


(neotic) #17

Every game I have been in the Allies have made the bridge and got the rocket on its way… deciding factor is the fuel. So no I dont think the Allies had a hard time.

As far the tunnel; i think its the second tunnel; and that tunnel splits if i remember right? And in that second tunnel the left split was the nice bottleneck; I would keep it… it was a blast fighting for it and when someone took control it was worth the price.


(=DaRk=CrAzY-NuTTeR) #18

i forgive ya

can we have screenshots?


(neotic) #19

http://members.chello.nl/~n.raats1/beta2/beta2.htm ; was in the first post bud.


(Schaffer) #20

So FireFly. Is it ready yet :slight_smile: